Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #287 - Russell Brand vs. Piers Morgan: When Faith Collides with Headlines

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#287 - Russell Brand vs. Piers Morgan: When Faith Collides with Headlines · Brandon Fogal Evolution

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Russell Brand and Piers Morgan had a very fiery sit down that got released yesterday. It was very good.
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Got to a lot of things that it made you think the whole podcast made you think,
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but I'll tell you this with podcasts, a lot of times it's towards the tail end
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that a lot of things really come out because I think a lot of,
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a lot of the people on there are more loose.
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They're more real And towards the tail end of it, it got explosive, very fiery.
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We saw, I saw the perspective of what Russell Brand was trying to get across to Piers Morgan.
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And Piers Morgan was just kind of almost in a defensive posture,
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wasn't really opening up.
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I don't think you can really open up at times on camera because you know,
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you're just, all you're thinking about is all the eyes on you and how they're
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receiving it. And Piers Morgan is very good at getting into explosive, fiery moments.
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And that really rubbed Russell Brand wrong much of the time.
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But we're going to dive into this. It was, this is where it started getting, started building up.
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And Piers Morgan asked about his wife, about his wife. Is she a Christian like
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you? Are you part of the same denomination?
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See, when even in the introduction, some people, he's a silver-tongued devil.
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And other people, he's an arsehole.
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Yeah, yes, and. Yeah, silver-tongued devil, arsehole. But she knows me and she
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loves the reality of who I am.
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And she's like a cradle Catholic, but she, like you, I figure,
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sort of, you know, it's hard to live your life like Christ is real because the
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world is telling you in a million different ways that he is not, that God isn't real.
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Is she a believer as well? She is familiar as you? She and I,
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me and my wife, Laura, we've like, her beliefs are very different from mine
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in a way, like I suppose it would be because it's hitting a very different prism in her.
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But we've certainly got a real alliance and neither of us have got any,
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like, even I suppose why I got rankled even at the asking about the denomination
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is because it's so beautiful in its purity and its formlessness.
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But most Christians have no problem saying what denomination is.
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It's not like I've got a problem with it. I've got this challenge.
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I'm a Catholic. I've got no problem telling it.
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Right there, you could just tell that Russell Brand, he is,
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He's getting ready to face trial for sexual allegations, and he could be going
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to prison, but he has made peace with that.
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It's not that he has become a Christian so that he can make people think that
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he's had a come-to-Jesus moment.
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I think he really has, and you can see it through his transformation and all
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he cares about talking about. He cares about talking about Jesus.
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He cares about not being just whatever people want to receive,
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whatever people want to look at me and think, I'm going to do that.
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I'm going to be a chameleon and be that.
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I don't see him that way at all. But as any person, if you're a real person,
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you are three-dimensional.
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You have ups and downs. Your emotions go all over the place.
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And people can strike you wrong and you can be hurt.
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And I think that he is dealing with this. He's going through so many complexities
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in his life as anyone is, as I'm sure you are currently, that you don't even
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know what you're walking into each day.
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You, you, sometimes you feel like you have a routine, but then sometimes things
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can come out of left field and you don't know what's going to come of this.
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And I just see, I see Russell Brand is a real man and Piers Morgan is just, he's asking questions.
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I just see it as like Piers is on the outside, still looking in. I don't know his heart.
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He says he's a Catholic. like he's a Christian.
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I don't know his heart, but you do see two different perspectives from Russell
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Brand, like just being utterly authentic.
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And he just goes off on tangents, but Piers Morgan is just putting up a wall
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because he's just thinking about the visuals, thinking about what people are seeing.
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Maybe just not exposing his whole heart. I may be people who aren't comfortable with doing that.
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And I think even the English, they are more standoffish, more stoic.
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They don't release their emotions.
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Like a lot of just Americans do a lot of people just that are just down to earth
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and just what is real at this point.
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That's how I feel at times. Like, let's not put on a stupid act for everyone
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and just let's be who we are.
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Say what we think, Like, let people know, and it's, we don't want to push people
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away, but we want to get down to, what do you care about? What is real? What's really going on?
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But he brought up the whole, because Pierce said about, well,
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what denomination you are.
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And that really struck a nerve with Russell Brand. And it strikes a nerve with me.
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Because if someone asked me, I don't ascribe to any denomination.
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Catholics, Orthodox, any of the thousands, almost tens of thousands of Protestant
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denominations at this point.
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Because those are just labels. Just what type of music do you like?
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You like country? I like a little bit rock and roll.
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You know, I'm more of a soul person. These are just stupid labels that we've manufactured.
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And it does rub you wrong if you're, I mean, unless you are a Catholic or Orthodox
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or just like a bullish Protestant that you like, I'm going to die on this hill.
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This is the label that Jesus told me to die on.
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Jesus didn't know about these labels. I hate to break it to you.
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He didn't know about the difference between Catholic and Orthodox and Protestant.
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He didn't know any of that.
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They had not. I mean, I guess he didn't know. He is God in human flesh,
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so he would have known that it would have eventually been a thing.
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But you know what I'm saying.
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Those weren't a thing in the first century. Those weren't a thing in this apostolic
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tradition and faith that has been delivered to us once for all to the saints.
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You're very different. You're very different. But why? Why is it so difficult
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to answer? It's not difficult to answer.
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I'm really interested in Catholicism. Really interested. Because you were an
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atheist. I kind of love it. You then were a Buddhist.
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See, that's antagonistic. No, it's not. It's factual. Look, you were an atheist. I want to be next.
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Russell? A true? A Scientologist? That's what some people think.
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Hitler. What do you think about Hitler? That's what some people think.
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That's what some people think. Should we get the jab? Russell,
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calm down. You take Bear's advice and be a good man. I am a good man. Be a good man.
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And it costs you to be a good man. It might cost you everything.
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You might not like... It might cost you everything to become one,
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but you can do it. You might not like...
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Man, you can, I can, I can just feel the goosebumps flowing through when I'm
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hearing Russell Brand. He is passionate.
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And he said, and they bring up, you're talking about Bear Grylls,
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who is a, who is a Christian.
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And I, I, you always feel like this, like he's really a Christian.
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He's, I mean, he's a real Christian. It's like, you're either a Christian or you're not.
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I mean, you are, you're either in the body of Christ or you're not.
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There is no middle ground.
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There is no fence. And you've heard it said, like, even Satan owns the fence.
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If you think you're on the fence, I'm just got, I'm thinking about making a decision.
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I'm kind of, I'm going to church. I'm doing my thing. It's like,
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unless you are, you sell everything and give everything to Christ. You are not.
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Does that mean you have to financially give all yourself? It might,
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it might, it might mean that, but unless you completely empty yourself and say,
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Jesus Christ, I don't, I, there's nothing else.
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I give myself completely to you, to you only will I serve.
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That's like almost the literal words that I use when I surrender to Jesus Christ.
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Like, I didn't know what I was doing, but I surrendered to him and I said,
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I will serve you only the rest of my life. And have I done that?
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Probably not. I have not just served him the rest of my life because we say
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things, but it's like, I come to God and I'm like, God, my answer,
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I don't care what the question is.
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I don't care what you want to ask of me. My answer is yes.
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Yes. I don't even want to hear the question. Yes. Because in the moment that
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you ask the question, father, I'm like, I don't care what the question,
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I want it to be yes. And I want, I just, God, give me the grace to be yes.
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The sinful nature in me doesn't pull me back to go into the ways of the world.
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I don't want to live in this world. I don't want to do anything that's disobedient
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to you. My heart is yours.
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Yes, Father. That's what I feel like. And I think that that is what is pouring
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through in Russell Brand.
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And you could say a lot of things because in our life, we do get stagnant.
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We do get fiery at times, depending on our stage of life.
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He's getting ready to go into his life could completely change.
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But every person, you are going into something that your life could completely
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change and you might not even know it.
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That's the real thing about this life. We don't know what the next hour is going to bring.
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So we almost always have to be on edge. We almost have to be ready on the edge
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of our seat because only God knows.
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He's the one who knows. But it's like if you're a Christian,
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you can have the peace going through whatever is coming down the pike.
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Whatever is around that next corner, you can have peace. And I think that that
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is what Russell Brand is experiencing.
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There are different people that just your personality, if something drives you
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off the wall or you are more of a naturally peaceful person,
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I think the peace of Christ can give the most crazy person out there that has
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just an eccentric personality peace as opposed to the, I mean,
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as the, as not as opposed, but the same way that a person that is more naturally
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peaceful can give them a genuine peace of Christ.
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Because when we talk about peace, it's like you're in the boat and waves are crashing everywhere.
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People are screaming. There's a fire on the shore.
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There's like tornadoes coming to you, but you have peace. You're not scared of whatever's coming.
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These are basic facts. You were an atheist. You then became a Buddhist.
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Now you're a Christian. Good. They're not basic facts. They're information being tailored and collated.
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Is it not true? Yeah. You are creating, attempting to create using a collage
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of language. You're the one who told us this thing. I told us that.
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You were. You told us you were an atheist. Israel's got the right to protect
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itself. This is a genocide.
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Don't take that COVID shot. Take the COVID shot.
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Listen. But I'm happy to talk about that. You're not. I'm happy to talk about
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anything, but I would prefer to talk about something, Piers.
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Something. We're talking about your profound belief in God as a Christian.
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No, we're not talking about my profound belief in God. We're talking about the actuality of God.
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Oh, I love that. I love that.
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Because Piers Morgan is just about talking about God. That's the difference.
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That's the difference between somebody that is with Christ and somebody,
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and I hate to say that. I don't know Piers' heart.
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Somebody that is not with Christ. People that are not with Christ are talking
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about God. They're talking about Jesus. They're talking about the Bible.
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People that are in Christ, that have a relationship with him,
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are talking to him. We're talking about the actuality of him that is right there,
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that is right here with us.
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We're not just talking about some abstract thing that's out there that might
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be, it could be, who knows, we'll find out.
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And that's what Russell Brand just, the actuality of God.
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We're not just talking about something, a fairy tale, guy with a beard in the
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sky, even though Jesus has a beard and he is in heaven.
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So, I mean, you could say that, but you know what I'm saying.
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Talking about the fact that you have been doing water carrying for Satan.
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That's what we're talking about,
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Piers. Water carrying. The fallenness in this world. The fallenness.
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I've been carrying water for Satan. Satan is the epitomizing object of the realness
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of evil. The evil is not some abstract moral idea. Who's the waterfall?
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I suppose it's... And I'm trying to... I don't mean to be mean.
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What is it like? I don't care. It's the institutions of media power and how
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they interact and operate with government.
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I suppose one could argue your initial position in COVID. One could argue what
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went on with the mirror stuff.
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You can see right there it just it's him
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he has his hand on him most of the the interview which
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you i i applaud pierce morgan
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because you could tell he's probably not a guy that likes to be hugged or touched really
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most people don't but the whole interview pierce morgan doesn't say a thing
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which shows a lot of grace and just that he doesn't say like oh take your hand
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off me or i feel weird this is uncomfortable he's like receiving it and and
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russell brand the people some people are more touchy-feely than others.
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Some people can just put their hands on you. They don't care about hugging you.
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But it just, it just shows that, like, Piers is, he's real. He's real in the sense that, like.
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I don't even know how I was kind of going with this. I kind of lost my train
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of thought right there. But I'm having one of those moments,
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you know, I'm not in the moment where I'm just like, what is going on? And my brain goes fried.
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But like, it just, it just feels like in that moment, I would just feel uncomfortable
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if somebody just completely, I just see it as like, that's the image.
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If you want to make a, like a meme of Russell Brand and Piers Morgan and Russell
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Brand having his hand on there, like, like this is a Christian trying to reach a non-believer.
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And this is what you think almost he doesn't have the Bible in his hand.
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And he wants to probably beat him over the head with it.
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Come to Jesus, be reconciled to God, believe in him, believe in him.
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And I think that's what most Christians want to do.
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We just like, whoever it is, it's like if it came out because all we are is
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a fragrance, an aroma of Jesus Christ.
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We are death to some people, but life to others. And that's what is coming through in Russell Brand.
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We don't know anybody's heart. The Lord knows who are his, you know,
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and anyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. God only knows.
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But man, I just seeing what Russell Brand, like it just, you can just almost
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feel it coming through the screen of just like, like God's spirit,
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just that empowering that just getting you fired up. Like,
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Just to go out there and be crazy radical for your faith.
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And radical for your faith as a Christian is to love people.
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And it might be sharing the name of Jesus. It might also just be living like
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Christ. Not saying a word at times.
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Not snapping back at people. And I don't know about you. I'm a person I snap back.
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And it doesn't even always come out. But I have, when my guard is down,
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what comes out is the truth.
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And it's disheartening for myself that just ugliness is within my heart,
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that I can't restrain myself at times. And I don't know if you struggle with that, but I do.
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And I hate it. That's probably one of the outbursts of anger.
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And it says in Paul, and that's in the list. Outbursts of anger is in the list
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of what Paul says of the people that will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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And you could say that like all those things are just things that completely
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characterize those people.
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You know, those are things that are not of the spirit. It's not to say that
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if you have a meltdown as a Christian, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God.
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If you are in Christ, you will never be out of Christ. You will forever be in Christ.
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It's a marriage. It's not just we're hooking up, having a one night stand with Jesus.
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No, rather you are married to him for eternity. You belong to him.
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He purchased you with his blood. You are his forever.
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You don't have to worry about, I'm going to lose my salvation.
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No Christian will ever lose their salvation.
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There are things that calls out in the Bible of continue to repent.
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You must believe, but God is the one who's given us the faith and God is the
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one who's shielding us through the faith and who will lead us all the way through
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this whole trial of this world to himself by faith.
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We are kept by faith. That's what it says in the Bible.
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One could argue what went on, say, with this contentiousness around the terrifying
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and awful conflicts in the Middle East.
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But more importantly, more importantly, right now, right now,
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that there's a chance for us to, even when I sort of take my own advice and
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more importantly, Bear Grylls' advice and think, right, just sit and chill,
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that you sort of revert to a kind of, he was a Buddhist and I can't see that as a good faith inquiry.
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I see it as an attempt to generate an outcome and to create a sort of a kind
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of hysteria, whether that's in this room with me, or sort of more broadly among
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people. Like Piers Morgan uncensored could be an opportunity to house frame
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and present in a kind of graceful way, important opinions.
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And I'm not suggesting that I've got any of them, but I'm having to be in a
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sort of a really weird situation in a way that's deeply similar and comparable
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to your own. You've sort of gone down the weird gushing chute.
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This is, I think, first of all, I do want to say this about Bear Grylls because
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I meant to say this earlier.
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A lot of times I start saying something and then I don't finish my thought and
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I just go off on something different, which I'm hopefully not doing right this
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moment as I'm speaking. but about Bill Grylls because I was like I'm always
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tempted to say oh man he's a real Christian he's a real Christian like like.
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Like I said before, if like, it's not, you're more real as a Christian,
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you don't become more real.
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It's kind of like as in the womb, if someone is conceived in the womb,
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they are, they are who they are right there.
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They're developing, they're growing. It's not like at a certain point,
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then they're a real person or then they're a real human being.
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No, they're a real human being a real person at that moment of conception,
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at that moment of regeneration that God gives us his spirit and makes us alive.
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He quickens us in Jesus Christ.
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We are really his. We are really his sons and daughters at that moment.
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It's not like we become more of his son or his daughter when we mature in our
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faith, but we are that now. We're in this world. We're in the womb.
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God is currently knitting us together, Christians, in the womb right now in
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this world. He's knitting us together little by little.
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His spirit is just pulling us together, putting sinews and bones and all this,
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and creating an eye, creating whatever, you know, of us to make us a member
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of his body in this world right now.
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And it's like when we come out of this world, when we are made alive,
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when we are born, as in when we die or when Jesus returns, then we will be the
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full human that we will forever be with him and we will forever be with the Lord.
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That's the reality. It's not that we become more of his son or his daughter.
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We are his. And I've always had this about adoption because in the Bible,
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it talks about the Christians, the people who believe in, in Christ and,
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you know, Israel, they are the adoption, the adoption was theirs and all that, you know.
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Because the only biological, genuine, rightful heir and person of God,
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what I'm trying to say is the only biological son of God is Jesus Christ.
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And the sense that we are adopted as his children, it's because we get to share
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in the same inheritance that the biological, the real son of God, Jesus Christ has.
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We get all the privileges, which is incredible. And that's because adoption
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is not something like you're a second class member of God's family.
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You are fully his, you are fully his children, but it's like the only real biological,
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genuine son of God is Jesus Christ. That's what I'm trying to get at.
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Like in this sense, the same nature, that's what Jesus has. He has the exact
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same nature as God, the father.
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And we get to as adopted children, be a part of his family and share in this.
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And we are truly children at the moment of conception, at the moment that the
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Holy Spirit quickens us and makes us alive. We're born again.
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A lot of people, this is a foreign language to people that are not Christians
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because it would have been a foreign language to me when I was not a Christian
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because it doesn't compute.
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It doesn't make sense to your natural mind. You don't understand any of this.
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It's a different language.
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It's not until God makes you alive that you can start understanding the baby
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talk that God is communicating with us.
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Because I remember before I became a Christian and people were talking about,
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oh, I went on this mission trip and I really saw God working like when it was
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probably down in New Orleans when the hurricane happened, all that years and years ago.
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I really saw God working down there. And I'm like, when I was not a Christian,
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I was like, what the heck are you talking about?
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God working? You see God working? What? It didn't make sense.
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It doesn't make sense until God turns on the lights, until you are really walking
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with him. And it's not in your own, your own perspective.
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What is it? Your own power, your own ability that you, oh, I'm going to decide to walk with God now.
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It's a mystery that God has to call you.
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God has to make you alive. And the difference is, a Christian,
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you have been made alive.
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Praise God. You did not do anything to put you across that line.
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God did it all. He did 100% of it.
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So keep that in mind. The one who did it 100% in you will do it 100% all the
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way in bringing you to himself.
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Of fame in a million different ways, being close to actual dark,
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nasty power, come out the other side.
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And what I suppose I'm saying is, look, it's because nothing means anything
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to you. That's what it feels like a bit.
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What means something to you? You love your wife, you love your kids,
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you're willing to die for your country. The UK is about to march teenagers into
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war. The United States is about to do it.
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And me and you, me as well, maybe we are a couple of grifters,
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a couple of worthless, lousy grifters that will say whatever we have to say
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to stay on the internet and make a few quid and flog a book and,
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oh, Meghan Markle, she's a bitch. Is that all right? Is that a bitch? Israel, yeah, fuck it.
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Maybe that's all we are, but through him, not through you or me,
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we can be something great. And when I see it, we ask- Oh, man, man, that, like-
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Do that like almost perfectly Russell Brand right there perfectly characterizes
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my heart and what I'm going through right now.
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Like, like, cause I'm, I'm doing this internet thing.
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I'm doing this YouTube thing and putting things, making videos,
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creating stuff and trying to put it out there that is enjoyable and beneficial
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and valuable for other people.
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But it's like, it's like this, this struggle as a Christian,
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I want to do what's right for God, but you almost also, I want to do stuff that
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is going to lead and get in front of people.
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And it's like, and it's like, you got to stop those voices of just doing stuff
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for your own selfish nature.
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If you like, if you get yourself to the top of whatever this top is,
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whatever the top that everybody is at each other's throats about, I want to be ahead of you.
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Cause as opposed to let's build each other up, let's do everything in good faith.
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And I think that is the struggle. at least I'm not, it's not coming out.
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This is a moment that it's in my heart, in my mind, but it's not coming out
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the way that I'm intending.
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I have a lot of those moments. I can't get it out of my mouth the way that I'm meaning.
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But it's this struggle that I want to be as faithful and genuine and do only
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what is of Christ, what is of God, what is going to push people towards Christ
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and what's not going to pull people away from Christ.
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But the internet is a nasty thing. It's disgusting.
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And why wouldn't it be disgusting? Satan is the prince of the power of the air.
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He's the one who holds this whole world in his own power. And people do only what is of his bidding.
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Pretty much the people at the top more than likely got there because Satan put
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them there. Of course, God can put anybody there that he wants to
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And Satan is below God, so whatever Satan's doing is what God's allowing him
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to do. There is no evil in God.
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What Satan does evil for his own purposes is not attributed to God.
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But it's the same way that Judas did something incredibly evil by betraying
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Jesus, sending him to the cross, but God takes that evil act that Satan inspired
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within Judas to be salvation to the rest of the world.
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Jesus went to the cross and died for our sins. So God takes everything that's
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evil of Satan and makes it good.
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And maybe I'll just end on this, that we can have peace, whatever we're going
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through, because of that.
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If you are called, God is going to work everything out, every decision,
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everything that's happened to your life.
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He's going to work it out for your good and for his glory.
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And that is something that every Christian can have peace in because God hasn't
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promised goodness or good things to anyone that is not going to be in Christ.
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That's the scary thing that there is going to be this separation.
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When we die, there is this separation.
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Are you in Christ or are you not? You're either in or you're out. Are you in or you're out?
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So I would just leave it with this. Are you in or are you out with Jesus? I hope you're in.
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If you're not, get in the ark. Get in because we don't know when our last day is going to be.
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We'll leave it at that. Smash that like button. Follow me on everything.
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My links are in the description of the different social medias, things I do.
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And I hope you have a good rest of your weekend and I'll see you all most likely
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on Monday. Have a good day. See you all.